XXXVII.
"TWO WEEKS!"
But before she was well in, her countenance changed.
"No," said she, "I want to think first. Give me time to think. I darenot say a word without thinking."
"Truth needs no consideration. If you wish to denounce this man----"
Her look said she did.
"Then now is the time."
She gave him a sharp glance; the first she had bestowed upon him sinceleaving Miss Althorpe's.
"You are no doctor," she declared. "Are you a police-officer?"
"I am a detective."
"Oh!" and she hesitated for a moment, shrinking from him with verynatural distrust and aversion. "I have been in the toils then withoutknowing it; no wonder I am caught. But I am no criminal, sir; and if youare the one most in authority here, I beg the privilege of a few wordswith you before I am put into confinement."
"I will take you before the Superintendent," said Mr. Gryce. "But do youwish to go alone? Shall not Mr. Van Burnam accompany you?"
"Mr. Van Burnam?"
"Is it not he you wish to denounce?"
"I do not wish to denounce any one to-day."
"What do you wish?" asked Mr. Gryce.
"Let me see the man who has power to hold me here or let me go, and Iwill tell him."
"Very well," said Mr. Gryce, and led her into the presence of theSuperintendent.
She was at this moment quite a different person from what she had beenin the carriage. All that was girlish in her aspect or appealing in herbearing had faded away, evidently forever, and left in its placesomething at once so desperate and so deadly, that she seemed not only awoman but one of a very determined and dangerous nature. Her manner,however, was quiet, and it was only in her eye that one could see hownear she was to frenzy.
She spoke before the Superintendent could address her.
"Sir," said she, "I have been brought here on account of a fearful crimeI was unhappy enough to witness. I myself am innocent of that crime,but, so far as I know, there is no other person living save the guiltyman who committed it, who can tell you how or why or by whom it wasdone. One man has been arrested for it and another has not. If you willgive me two weeks of complete freedom, I will point out to you which isthe veritable man of blood, and may Heaven have mercy on his soul!"
"She is mad," signified the Superintendent in by-play to Mr. Gryce.
But the latter shook his head; she was not mad yet.
"I know," she continued, without a hint of the timidity which seemednatural to her under other circumstances, "that this must seem apresumptuous request from one like me, but it is only by granting itthat you will ever be able to lay your hand on the murderer of Mrs. VanBurnam. For I will never speak if I cannot speak in my own way and at myown time. The agonies I have suffered must have some compensation.Otherwise I should die of horror and my grief."
"And how do you hope to gain compensation by this delay?" expostulatedthe Superintendent. "Would you not meet with more satisfaction indenouncing him here and now before he can pass another night in fanciedsecurity?"
But she only repeated: "I have said two weeks, and two weeks I musthave. Two weeks in which to come and go as I please. Two weeks!" And noargument they could advance succeeded in eliciting from her any otherresponse or in altering in any way her air of quiet determination withits underlying suggestion of frenzy.
Acknowledging their mutual defeat by a look, the Superintendent anddetective drew off to one side, and something like the followingconversation took place between them.
"You think she's sane?"
"I do."
"And will remain so two weeks?"
"If humored."
"You are sure she is implicated in this crime?"
"She was a witness to it."
"And that she speaks the truth when she declares that she is the onlyperson who can point out the criminal?"
"Yes; that is, she is the only one who will do it. The attitude taken bythe Van Burnams, especially by Howard just now in the presence of thisgirl, shows how little we have to expect from them."
"Yet you think they know as much as she does about it?"
"I do not know what to think. For once I am baffled, Superintendent.Every passion which this woman possesses was roused by her unexpectedmeeting with Howard Van Burnam, and yet their indifference whenconfronted, as well as her present action, seems to argue a lack ofconnection between them which overthrows at once the theory of hisguilt. Was it the sight of Franklin, then, which really affected her?and was her apparent indifference at meeting him only an evidence of herself-control? It seems an impossible conclusion to draw, and indeedthere are nothing but hitches and improbable features in this case.Nothing fits; nothing jibes. I get just so far in it and then I run upagainst a wall. Either there is a superhuman power of duplicity in thepersons who contrived this murder or we are on the wrong tackaltogether."
"In other words, you have tried every means known to you to get at thetruth of this matter, and failed."
"I have, sir; sorry as I may be to acknowledge it."
"Then we must accept her terms. She can be shadowed?"
"Every moment."
"Very well, then. Extreme cases must be met by extreme measures. We willlet her have her swing, and see what comes of it. Revenge is a greatweapon in the hands of a determined woman, and from her look I think shewill make the most of it."
And returning to where the young girl stood, the Superintendent askedher whether she felt sure the murderer would not escape in the time thatmust elapse before his apprehension.
Instantly her cheek, which had looked as if it could never show coloragain, flushed a deep and painful scarlet, and she cried vehemently:
"If any hint of what is here passing should reach him I should bepowerless to prevent his flight. Swear, then, that my very existenceshall be kept a secret between you two, or I will do nothing towards hisapprehension,--no, not even to save the innocent."
"We will not swear, but we will promise," returned the Superintendent."And now, when may we expect to hear from you again?"
"Two weeks from to-night as the clock strikes eight. Be wherever I maychance to be at that hour, and see on whose arm I lay my hand. It willbe that of the man who killed Mrs. Van Burnam."